Our First and Final Breath
by Lord-Hermione
Summary: A story of Hisana and Rukia, how they came to be in Soul Society.


Our First and Final Breathe.

A story of Rukia and Hisana.

She won't stop crying. Even in the most comfortable times. All she did was cry, cry and cry. She needs her mom. Not her sister.

Rukia is a baby, I know. But I think this is over the limit.

Every time I passed a crowd, their voices drown to the wailing of my little sister.

The only time she didn't cry is when I fed her, and that's rare. We have a home, a little shack of the main road in our village, but we have no money. Our parents died many years ago.

And I'm only 18 years old carrying around a one year old.

As I walk down the dirt road, I pat Rukia's back as she sleeps. Horses pulling carriages pass me and I couldn't help but notice how simple life is. All you have to do (and there are no limit to it) is live. That's basically it. Everyone here is fighting death, keeping away from it. And once it comes to you… life is over, isn't it?

It only took me a second to realize there was some noise coming from the end of the hill. People were running like crazy. As I narrowed my eyes I could see, and even feel, danger.

I gripped Rukia even harder, and ran. I don't know how long it took me before I collapsed, coughing. 'Not now…oh please not now…' I told myself.

Rukia of course was wide awake, crying her eyes out. My ears were pressed against the ground and I felt the vibration of something stomping its way over here.

I held Rukia waiting for the worse. And it did come. Painfully.

It felt like the world dropped on my back. People all around scrambled their kids to safety. One person even left there kid. But all I was thinking of was Rukia.

The weight came off and another stomp came from my right. And then…I was in the air.

I screamed so loud my voice could have carried across the country. Something or someone was holding me up there in their fist. They shook me, to the point where I dropped Rukia, 20 feet below.

"RUKIA!" I screamed, thinking the worst.

I was thrown into a shack; went through the roof and landed on a pile of hay. My back was broken, and all I could see is a lump on the ground a few yards away, through the window, stirring. So she wasn't…dead.

I was rising up…into the air, I could see the sun now, but I couldn't see what was holding me up. It squished me, and I coughed blood out. This was my final moment. I knew it.

Her cries rang in my ears and I could tell who that was from a mile away.

"Rukia!" I said opening my eyes. I first noticed the weight in my chest. I looked down to see a chain, about 2 feet long, coming out of my chest. Then I noticed my figure was ghostly like, and yet I could still feel myself however cold the touch was. Then I noticed I was in the same scene as I was a few moments ago. Except this time a huge black figure, with a huge mask and big eyes and mouth, was visible.

I screamed and ran toward Rukia, I tried to pick her up but my hands kept on going through her. Was I dead?

The monster roared in the night. Why was it night all of a sudden?

For a split second I felt like I was going to die all over again. Then a figure in black swooshed past my eyes.

He was tall, and handsome, his long black hair shining in the night, his long black cloak whipping in the air. The blade of his sword in front of him added to his dark feature. The monster turned to him, its attention no longer on Rukia and me.

The man jumped about 50 feet in the air and dived toward the monster. The monster made a sudden move, dodging the blade.

I on the other hand saw a lady, alive, running towards me. She saw the baby on the ground and ran towards her, it seems she couldn't see or hear the commotion a few yards away just like I couldn't before I died.

The lady picked the baby up and I examined Rukia's frail body. With a sudden gasp I realized that Rukia was bleeding. If she didn't get the care she needed fast, she might die.

"Lady! Treat her now!" I yelled at her, but she didn't even take the slightest notice of me. Behind me the man and the monster were fighting. The man was having a hard time I could tell.

But this next move broke my heart.

The monster slammed the man to a nearby shack, and jogged its way towards Rukia, the woman, and I. The woman felt the vibration, and back away. With one swing of an arm the lady was thrown back and Rukia thrown out of her arm and on the hard pavement.

"RUKIA!"

"Get back!" the man said. He drew his sword in front of him, as the monster turned.

"Senbonzakura." He whispered. Sakura flowers were dancing in the wind, as the swords slashed the monster to its death.

Moments passed.

Then the same cry I hear every day drowned the silence. Rukia was still alive.

"She's dead." The man said.

"What?"

"You both died."

I walked over to Rukia and I was surprised to find myself picking her up. She was dead; her body was ghost-like.

"That was a hollow. It attacks humans, and souls like you."

"Hollow? Here?"

"Ill take you to a place, like heaven, its called Soul Society. All souls like you go there once a shinigami sends them. You will live a normal life." he said, not wasting time.

"So you're a shinigami?"

"Yes, now come here." I walked towards him as he turned his sword to the handle.

"What's your name?" I asked before he placed it on my forehead.

"Kuchiki. Kuchiki Byakuya."

--------------------------------------------------

The journey felt cold, and slippery, but I was there. In Soul Society. With Rukia.

She felt it too. But instead of sleeping, she was laughing. I hadn't heard her laugh for months. But that great sound was drowned out by my coughing.

Right then I knew that my sickness had followed me…Even to the afterlife.


End file.
